Romeo and Juliet - "If I profane with my unworthiest hand" by William Shakespeare

Please help the channel, by liking, leaving a comment and sharing on social media. Also please consider purchasing one or both of my books of poetry. My aim is to keep our rich poetic tradition alive with my readings & through with my own poetry; both are equally important to me! Yours, Arthur
My poetry collections 'Poems for Susan' (2020) and 'Scarlet Land' (2021) are available from my shop: ko-fi.com/arth...
If you wish to contribute to the channel, please consider purchasing one or both. Alternatively, you can make a one time donation here: ko-fi.com/arth...
Day 5 of the 'Highlights of Romeo and Juliet' and the lovers speak for the first time. Their first encounter takes the form of a sonnet! How wonderfully romantic.
In order to for us to hear the exchange as a sonnet, I have removed the line breaks and the character names, but if you're unsure who is speaking, see the text below!
Please subscribe and share 🌹
ROMEO
If I profane with my unworthiest hand
This holy shrine, the gentle sin is this:
My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand
To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss.
JULIET
Good pilgrim, you do wrong your hand too much,
Which mannerly devotion shows in this;
For saints have hands that pilgrims' hands do touch,
And palm to palm is holy palmers' kiss.
ROMEO
Have not saints lips, and holy palmers too?
JULIET
Ay, pilgrim, lips that they must use in prayer.
ROMEO
O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do;
They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.
JULIET
Saints do not move, though grant for prayers' sake.
ROMEO
Then move not, while my prayer's effect I take.
Thus from my lips, by thine, my sin is purged.
JULIET
Then have my lips the sin that they have took.
ROMEO
Sin from my lips? O trespass sweetly urged!
Give me my sin again.
JULIET
You kiss by the book.
#Shakespeare #Poetry #RomeoandJuliet #PoetryfromtheShires #Literature #EnglishPoetry

[@exildoc]

How very enticing!

[@ArthurLWood]

O, then, dear saint, let lips do what hands do; They pray, grant thou, lest faith turn to despair.

[@bucephalusthepug397]

Very passionate reading. You rocked that👏🌹

[@rosiejack9069]

A stunning piece perfectly read.

[@ArthurLWood]

Thank you! I felt a little awkward reading the back-and-fourth dialogue, but there's no other way! I would collaborate with a friend if we weren't socially distancing.

[@kleliaoliveira8434]

Wowwww!! Perfect!!! ❤️

[@Mockturtlesoup1]

This has always been one of my favorite "quotes"/sections from R+J, and indeed Shakespeare as a whole. In the past, I would have said Hamlet was my favorite of Shakespeare's works, but now I think R+J is my favorite(though I think part of that is due to seeing the film version starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes when I was younger, as it gives me something to picture in my head more clearly, and despite not being well-received by critics, I did enjoy the music and direction of that film.)

[@leastone9600]

Give me my sin again. Who could resist? 🤗